It looks like you ordered in gold plated stainless. Which if you look at the render of the item you ordered, I can see where you would be disappointed if you were expecting that quality. To look the closest to that detail in a metal you should order in silver. The best example of what you are seeing is this image here
Where silver has higher accuracy and detail. Feel free to email service about your displeasure with the model.

I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me. -Maya Angelou
michael@shapeways.com Community Advocate

Sometimes yes there are great and realistic render, but in this case is pretty clear that it is a render and not the real object photo. As a designer, I will never sell an object without adding clear pictures of the final product, I might use a render only for a project that is not for sale; customers must to see how looks the real object ; this is my first rule if I want to sell something.

Yep, been in this discussion a few times... In an ideal world we should put up photo's of actual printed models for sale, but that simply isn't possible unless you have an overflowing bank account. Most of my renders are marked as such and I think that's all we can ask. I do agree for the casual buyer here that renders could be VERY deceiving leaving disappointed customers.

I see your point, personally I think that, as a customer, I will never order, something showed just with a render or a virtual picture. As you said, you are marking your render as such and this is perfectly ok, customer knows. In the case above there is nothing mentioning something like "please note that this is a render and not a real object's picture". Maybe it is just a question to put the right infos.